FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 162, 29 September 1927, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By "THE LOOK-OUT MAN” RESTAURAKT MILK The medical officer of health warns restaurant-keepers regarding the quality of milk they offer to the public, complaints having been received of watering this fluid food to make it go further, or skimming it for the alleged cream which is given in three-drop doses on the canned cold fruit. Dr. Hughes says he is going to prosecute eating-house proprietors who adopt such economical methods. While he is about it, he might see what can be done to those publicans who water their whisky and add an occasional bucket of fluid economics to the beer-barrel. There is more money made out of water in Auckland than most people are aware of. * * » THE HUMAN AGE A man close on 60 years of age is discharged from hospital after an unsuccessful operation. One wonders what has become of the famous followup system of which the hospital authorities were boasting a while back. It was apparently no concern of the hospital’s that this man, whom they had failed to cure, had no home and no means; he was discharged from the institution to wander the city streets on a cold and windy night, shelterless, friendless and hungry. Well, not quite friendless, for he was mercifully arrested by the police on a charge of being “idle and disorderly.” Brought before the court next morning, he was remanded for a week for medical treatment —remanded to a prison! Possibly the prison authorities will get him back into the hospital—if they pay for his treatment there. What a wonderfully reasonable and humane system it is which turns a helpless, friendless and incurably sick man out into the world to be arrested by the police and locked up as an “idle and disorderly” person! SHREWD TRADE TRICK There has come to the Look-Out Man “the greatest offer ever made,” via a lady who received same through the post from Australia. The recipient is informed that this astounding offer is being made to further the' sales of certain hosiery. Two pairs of socks or stockings are to be given “free,” if—ah, the catch is in the “if!” You get this hosiery if you All in an attached coupon and post it, with 2s 6d to a firm in Sydney. The rest is easy. “By return post you will' receive three cards, identical with this one, value 3s. Dispose of these to your friends for Is each, and as soon as they, in their turn, have sent in their coupons, you will receive free, your two pairs of hose.” In bringing this enterprising scheme under the notice of the LookOut Man, the recipient of one of the cards writes: “A similar stunt was worked in Sydney some years ago and reached huge dimensions. The articles ‘given away’ on that occasion were shoes, said to be worth 10s a pair; but the philanthropists running the scheme actually had 25s in hand before they handed out each pair of shoes. You will see that it only needs one hundred people to reply to this card and by the next mail there will be three hundred cards for sale —trebling every mail until the inevitable fizzle, when the whole population will have ca,rds for sale —and no buyers. I fancy schemes of this nature are illegal in New Zealand.” In any case, there are plenty of stockings for sale in New Zealand, quite as good as this Australian bait for the simple-minded, and probably much cheaper. %%%%&&% % as % % % %

a-SKSKSKSKSKSKSKSRSKaiSK 3S % % PROVERTY AND THE MONARCHY There are some distressing details of the poverty and inconvenience of being a Royalty in a former London factory girl’s “Life of Queen ■ Mary.” The Queen’s family were without the money to maintain ducal splendour, and Princess Mary had to educate herself, says this humble biographer of the Great. The Princess read for six hours a day—including Blue Books. Poor Princess! That must account for her blue outlook on some phases of life. It is really astonishing to discover that kings and queens talk to each other just like ordinary mortals. The King, when courting, used to “bounce” upstairs at York Abbey, calling, “Mary, where are you?” and he would receive the reply, “I am here!” Most of His Majesty’s loyal New Zealand subjects, who have roaring fires in the winter, will feel real mean to learn how Spartan is life in Buckingham Palace. Shown a central heating apparatus in a war hospital. King George said, “How lucky you are —we have to live in a corner of one room to keep warm. You can have hot baths daily. I can only get one a week —and you cannot lather soap in cold water!” Heads that wore crowns must have lain more than uneasy in those dreadful days. How infinitely better off even than monarchy were the little Maori boys who dived for pennies at Whakarewarewa! But if one is to judge this biography by the thrilling incidents here related, it would be as well to read it with the salt-cellar close at hand.